Moving Beyond The ABC's Of Christianity - [Hebrews 6:1-3]

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

I was studying foundations this week, not the Isaac Asimov science fiction books, not the

British soul group, not the endowed institutions and charities that have charitable monies, not colored creams, powders, or liquid used as bases to even out your facial skin tones before applying other cosmetics.

Rather, I was thinking about foundations like in buildings. Think engineering, structures that connect the building to the ground, foundations that transfer loads from the structure to the ground, giving the building stability and firmness and a real supporting structure.

I learned this week that foundations distribute the weight of the structure over a large area so as to avoid overloading the soil beneath.

I know that�s rich and deep to you. While I don�t know much about foundations,

I know that foundations aren�t the end -all. They�re the supporting structure for the rest of the building and they serve a purpose and it�s not the end -all.

And today we�re going to look at foundations of the Christian faith, which are very important to build on, but they�re not the end -all.

Let me explain it this way. There�s lots of God talk in our society today, isn�t there?

And people don�t even mind. You can say you believe in the big guy. You can say that you believe in God.

You can say that you pray. You can say that you are religious.

You can say that you�re spiritual. You can say you have a Bible. You can say you go to Easter Sunday service.

You can say you read Christian books with other people and that�s all fine and those may in fact be good foundations.

But if you dare open your mouth and say something about the Lord Jesus Christ, the risen

Savior, the only one in whom you can have your sins forgiven, the one that you�ll stand before one day and give an account, and that God will, since he is your creator, will require perfect obedience for you to get to heaven.

Or trust in Jesus Christ, the perfectly obedient one in your place, this risen

Savior. If you talk that way, there�s going to be trouble. I�d like you to take your

Bibles and turn to the book of Hebrews and we�re going to talk about the groundwork for the Messiah, the platform, the foundations that the

Old Testament has to build upon this great doctrine of the Messiah and it is a very

Christ -centered message. Foundations are wonderful to lay a base for something, but they�re not the end -all, they�re just the groundwork, they�re the stage and the

Old Testament is a wonderful foundation for the platform of the Messiah himself.

The book of Hebrews, please, please turn to the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. This I think is my favorite book.

I know every pastor says that when he�s preaching through it, but this book has literally changed my life and this is the one book that I would pick if I had to go to a desert island or someplace else and why do

I pick this? Because it�s all about who Jesus is and it ties not only Jesus to today and what he�s doing as the exalted

Savior, but it�s got its foundation in the Old Testament. When you study the book of Hebrews, you�re forced to know your

Old Testament because the platform, the stability, the foundations are found in the

Old Testament. And I don�t know how often you read your Bibles, I�m sure many of you read your Bibles a lot, but to think 70 -some percent of your

Bible is the Old Testament and so what the book of Hebrews does is he�s talking to Hebrew people trying to show them the foundations of their faith lie in the

Old Testament. Somebody came up to me today and they said, �We wish you�d keep going on the doctrine of assurance� and I said, �There�ll be more on assurance in a few weeks as we pick up the book of Hebrews.�

But today, Hebrews chapter 6. Now just imagine for a moment to set this up with a little bit of review, since how long has it been since we�ve been in Hebrews?

A day is like a thousand years, right? So it�s been several months since we�ve been in the book of Hebrews and if you�re new to our church, we pick a book of the

Bible and generally we just preach through it. We just march through verse by verse by verse so you can see for yourselves the context.

So when you go home today and you read that passage, you�ll be able to make those connections.

I�m not a priest, I�m not the one who stands before you and God, that�s the Lord Jesus and I want you to know

His Word. That�s my very heart�s desire that you know the Bible and I�m trying to study the

Bible and then preach it to you so that you�ll know it. Side note, when I saw people preach in verse by verse fashion,

I thought to myself, �That�s exactly what I want to do one day.� Not just what I want to do but I want to understand the

Bible like that person does and that�s my desire for you is to so know this Bible that you can say, �This whole

Bible preaches the Lord Jesus Christ. It exalts Jesus. The book of Hebrews does that very thing.

It�s like the fifth gospel. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John talk about Jesus on earth. The book of Hebrews talks about Jesus and His work in heaven because He�s not dead anymore.

He�s raised and He�s interceding. Everything about this book proclaims Christ Jesus and that�s why

I know you�re here today. I�ve gone to some crazy churches in my life and I think to myself, �If

I ever invite a friend to this crazy church and then that pastor does something crazy, what am I going to do ?�

So I kind of warn them ahead of time, �I never know where this guy is going to go so just be careful. Just heads up.

I told you ahead of time.� I don�t know if you think what I do is crazy but I hope you say every week when you invite a friend, �By the way, parking lot bad, carpet, areas for fellowship bad, coffee non -existent.�

But I know that man because of what the Spirit of God has done is going to talk to me about who Jesus is.

He�s not going to do moralistic kind of TED talks. I would like to hear about Jesus. Here�s what Spurgeon said, �I do believe that we slander

Christ when we are to draw the people by something else than preaching Christ crucified. We know that the greatest crowd in London, Spurgeon�s church, has been held together these 30 years by nothing but the preaching of Christ crucified.

Where is our music? Where is our oratory? Where is anything of attractive architecture or beauty or ritual?

A bare service they call it. Yes, but Christ makes up for all the deficiencies.�

Spurgeon said, �If I had one more sermon to preach before I died, it would be about my Lord Jesus Christ.� And I think that when we get to the end of our ministry, one of the regrets will be that we did not preach more of Him.

I am sure no minister will ever repent of preaching Jesus too much.

So if you want to hear about Jesus, you�re in the right church. Amen? And by the way, what flows from me should be happening at the dinner table,

Sunday school, junior church, Iwana, it�s the same thing. I�m not the one that tells you about Jesus, and you tell the kids no elbows on the table, although that�s fine, but you tell them something more than moralism.

And that�s exactly what the book of Hebrews does. It just extols from the very beginning who Jesus is.

Turn to chapter 1. I mean, it is like the starting gun goes off, and then it�s just action after that, and the action is really an attitude about who

Jesus is. Long ago at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, He�s spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things.

This is the Jesus that this writer is talking about, through whom also He created the world, including you.

He�s the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of His nature. If you want to know who God is, Jesus is

God. He upholds the universe by the word of His power. Could there be anything better than that?

Answer, yes. After making purification for sins, purging sins, cleansing sins, it was such a great thing that He did.

Mission was accomplished. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

And that�s exactly what this book does. It just continues a full court press, who is

Jesus. I played a lot of basketball in my life, and when you try to press full court, it takes a lot out of you, but it makes the tempo go very fast.

And that�s what�s happening with the book of Hebrews. It�s just a full court press to who Jesus is, and it�s like He throws out contenders.

Let�s think of something great, and is Jesus greater? Prophets. He�s greater.

Prophets were great, but Jesus is greater. Let�s see. What could we think of? Angels. They�re great. Jesus is greater.

Moses. He�s great. Jesus is greater. This old covenant system in Aaron.

He�s great. Jesus is greater. Because the writer wants you to know something, and it�s this.

Your life is going to get very, very difficult if it�s not already, and you�re going to have to trust in something.

You�re going to have to hope in someone. And maybe it�s education, and maybe it�s medicine, and maybe it�s your stocks, and maybe it�s your friends, but one day when all that stuff fades away, when you get those phone calls, you�re going to have to trust in the one who loved you and gave his life for you.

And it�s not going to be simple enough to just say, �Jesus loved me, yes,

I know, for the Bible tells me so.� That is a great place to start, but it can�t end there.

And so the book of Hebrews, we�re in chapter 6. Let�s turn there. As the writer, I almost said Paul. It might be

Paul. We don�t know who wrote this, but we know what he wrote about. That�s the good news. He wrote about the high priest

Jesus, the one who is fully, or truly man, to stand as a man before God, and truly

God, who has enough infinite righteousness to give anyone and everyone who believes.

And everything in this book is pushing you to say this, �I trust Jesus. I believe in Jesus.

I�m hoping that he is the one. By faith, I know mentally, and I know emotionally even, and I know with a deep -hearted trust that he is the

Messiah.� And now we come to chapter 6, which might be one of the most controversial passages in all the

Bible. And before I read it, we used to have a house on the lake that we rented.

And every Sunday night, almost literally every Sunday night, except when it was snowing five feet or something, we would have people come over to our house after the

Sunday night service. And then we would have a little Q &A around the campfire. And if I had to boil down all the

Q &As into two questions, one would be, �Where did Jesus go when he died on the cross ?�

Right? Hebrews 1 Peter chapter 3. What did he do? And then the other question was, �What about Hebrews 6 ?�

So just imagine the campfire tonight, okay, smoky, coffee, Red Bull.

No, you know what we used to drink around the campfire? Moxie, because I�m from New England.

Hebrews chapter 6, three main themes, maturity, apostasy, and certainty.

And I�m just going to read all of chapter 6 so you can see kind of where we�re going to be the next few weeks, and then we�ll dive down into verses 1, 2, and 3.

Maturity, apostasy, and certainty. We start off with maturity. He wants them to be mature. Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ, Hebrews 6, 1, and go on to maturity.

Not laying again a foundation, that�s why I did my introduction, of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.

And of instruction about washings and laying on of hands and resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

And this we will do if God permits. He wants them to be mature. But he also warns of apostasy when people turn their back on the

Lord Jesus. Verse 4, �For it is impossible in the case of those who have been once enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the

Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and have then fallen away to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the

Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated receives a blessing from God.

But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.�

Maturity, apostasy, and now encouragement or certainty, confidence he wants to give the listeners, assurance of salvation.

Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation.

For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.

And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, �Surely

I will bless you and multiply you.� And thus Abraham, verse 15, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all the disputes an oath is final for confirmation.

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews chapter 6, maturity, apostasy, certainty.

Let's go through verses 1 through 3 today and talk about this idea of pressing on to maturity.

I think there are some of you here today that are Christian people obviously, and the focus is going to be on to getting to know the scriptures better, so you get to know

God better, so you can walk by faith in him with a clear picture of who this

Jesus is. But there are people that heard this sermon, remember Hebrews is a sermon, it's also an epistle.

Epistle just means a letter, and sometimes I like to just say words that strike me oddly and wonderfully,

I love to say propitiation, I love to say sacerdotal, why, it just sounds good.

I also love to say these two words, this book Hebrews is a sermonic epistle, or an epistlatory sermon.

That is, it's a letter and it's a sermon. This is the one letter we have in the New Testament that's a real sermon to an established congregation.

I wonder what he talks about. He talks about Jesus all the time. And so if you're here today and you're not a

Christian, there's going to be this push, I hope the Spirit of God is trying to convince you by conviction, that if you think you can get to heaven by being good, why kill

Jesus? You can't. Your sins are so radical, my sins are so radical, it takes death.

Be my death, except God is gracious and he accepts the death of another, the Lord Jesus. So let's go to verses one, two, and three.

And if you want to look up some of the original Greek words and figure out what the main verb is instead of the modifiers,

I can just do that for you. And here's the key, go on to maturity, press on to maturity.

That's the key. When he says in your ESV, let us leave, it's really let us be leaving and not laying again a foundation.

And so the whole portion here is maturing. He could be saying, keep believing.

He could be saying, have a better belief, a more informed belief, a more biblical belief.

And that's a good way to mature. Remember what he did in chapter five, verse 11?

He wanted to tell them all kinds of stuff about a priesthood. But he says in 5 .11, and this, about this, we have much to say and it's hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.

And so he has to kind of step over for a second and he gives you a warning. He's been teaching, teaching, teaching, teaching.

And then now he comes over and he warns you. I never got spanked in school, but I know some people, anybody here get spanked at school?

Some did. Okay. Some did. All right. That explains it.

It's almost like you have a teacher and it's the old school teacher, you know, a little house on the prairie and they're teaching, teaching, teaching.

And then somebody is kind of messing up a little bit. And then it's time to have your fingers whacked a little bit.

Kind of a warning and it wakes you up. Remember with Luther, when Luther was in school, he hated

Latin class because you couldn't speak German in Latin class. It was only Latin all the time. And they designated one little boy, the lupus, and the lupus was the wolf and his job was to tattle and to snitch on any children who would say

German words in Latin class. I think Luther said one day he got spanked or caned 15 times in one day for speaking

Latin and German classes. That's excessive. Well, what the writer here is doing, like in chapter five, he's giving you a warning.

It's not because he hates the people, but there are stern warnings. This truth is so important.

If you won't believe it, there are consequences like eternal consequences, like hell and judgment forever consequences.

So five times in this letter, as he's talking about who Jesus is and extolling the virtues of Christ, he has these warning passages and it's time to just go, this is serious.

And so he just gets done with that warning passage and now he says, I want you to go on to maturity. And what does he say?

Verse one, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ. Remember he's talking to Jewish people. They've got some of the basic foundations of Jesus from the

Old Testament, but now we need to go on to maturity. Not laying again, a foundation of, and then he gives a bunch of things that Jewish people would know very well.

Now if you look down at those things that he lists, he lists six things in verses one and two.

Do you notice repentance from dead works and a faith toward God, et cetera. There's six of them. And really there are three pairs if you look at the original language.

And I'd ask you this question, congregation, is there anything that's specifically Christian about those? Or would it be kind of general

God talk? I study the founding fathers sometimes, and I've been listening to a book on CD, I almost said on cassette.

You know, they have a lot of God talk back in those days, providence, intelligent design maybe they might say, they talk about the soul and a creator and heaven and hell and prayer and kind of like, you know, rotary

God stuff, great architect of the universe stuff. And when you look at this list, can you see anything that is particularly specifically

Christ centered? It's not. These are all basic foundational truths from the

Old Testament, but they are to go back to verse one, elementary doctrines of Christ.

They're the ABCs. And here's what the writer's doing big picture. If you get this, you get this whole section. Take the

ABCs and move forward. Don't camp out of the ABCs. Hey, you Jewish people, you learned the building blocks of the

Messiah. Now believe in that building block, who the building block is pointing you to. And so he gives this list.

And he said, you know what? These foundations, as good as they might be, aren't Christian. They're the building blocks of Christianity.

They're right. They're good. And for instance, don't build on the first one.

Very generic. And let's put them together as pairs. Repentance from dead works and a faith toward God.

That sounds good. We believe in repentance. We believe in faith toward God. But that's not really that Christian.

By the way, contextually, what were those dead works? Those dead works could be

Levitical sacrifices and Levitical temple worship things, or they could just be evil works, murders and adultery and lust and fornication.

But either way, why do you want to stop those things? You should stop them so you can have faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ. And is that what it says? Not laying again a foundation from dead works and of faith toward God.

That sounds so much different than Paul. Here's what Paul said in Acts 20, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and the

Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our

Lord Jesus Christ. What's the point? The point is that is a good building block.

Repentance from dead works, faith in God. But we now know more about this God because the New Testament has revealed that Jesus has told us.

And so you can't just say, you know, I have kind of faith in God now and that's enough. No, this is must be faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ himself. He gives another set of groupings of instructions about washings and laying on of hands.

Now this instructions about washings is where we get the Greek word baptism, but it's plural of baptisms.

Think, Jews get a letter, go on from what you've learned to believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ and you need to move past washings. What would they think of? New Testament washing, baptism,

John the Baptist baptism washing, what would they think of? They think of Levitical washing.

They think of priest has to get washed, you have to have a special bath, you have to wash the utensils, you have to wash part of the sanctuary, you have to wash, wash, wash.

There's all kinds of washings. That's good because it's pointing to something. It's pointing to God wants pure worship and God prescribes worship.

God doesn't say, worship me any way you want. Nadab and Abihu tried that. God said, I want you to worship me specifically and I'm holy.

So there's all kinds of washings, ceremonial washings. And the writer says, go past the washings and laying on of hands.

What does that make you think of when you think of the Old Testament? Now if you were a smart aleck, you'd say, my dad did a lot of laying on of hands when

I was a kid. That's not the kind. Sometimes I'd have these huge imprints of my dad's hand on my arm and on my back.

Everybody wanted to sit behind dad when he was driving because he couldn't hit you back there. I call the seat behind dad.

But he could grab your hair real hard and then the rest of the trip to the swimming pool you're just like, oh, hair.

Okay, think like a Jew. Repentance is good, but it's vague because there's more to the story.

Jesus is there. Well, faith, that's good, but it's vague. We know more about the object of our faith.

Baptisms, washings, yeah, those are all fine and they serve their purpose. They weren't full of air, but they were truth pointing to something and now laying on of hands.

What does laying on of hands do? Well, if we install a new elder and we all lay our hands on him as other elders, we are identifying with that person.

Can you think of Old Testament scenarios where you might want to touch the head of an animal and so your sins are identified with that animal before you kill that animal?

That's the idea. There's all kinds of baptisms and washings and laying on of hands, but they're just foundations.

The building is here. Don't go back to the foundation. And then he gives something else, the last pair, resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

Pharisees believed in the resurrection. Of course, the Sadducees didn't, but that's just, it's just general and eternal life here.

Resurrection of the dead. There is life after death. That's good, but that's not specifically Christian and eternal judgment.

The Jews believed in eternal judgment. Daniel chapter seven and the court sat in judgment and the books were opened.

Here's what's going on. Jewish people, you've got the Old Testament, you've got the ABCs, you've got the foundations, but I'm telling you those were building blocks to something else and someone else.

So move forward. That's all he's trying to say. And by the way, the key to interpret all this whole passage is found in verse nine.

If you'd like to know how a difficult passage can be interpreted easily, it's found in this verse, verse nine, though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things.

What are those better things? Things that belong to salvation. Now let that sink in for a second.

That means whatever's in verses one through eight, they don't belong to salvation. They might be precursors of salvation.

They might be building blocks to salvation. They might be introductions to talk about things for salvation, but they're not pertaining to salvation.

And here he wants the Jewish people to move forward. There's a doctrine in Christianity called progressive revelation.

Remember progressive revelation? God didn't give the Bible to Adam day one. Here you go.

Everything you need to know about me is right here. He gave a little bit to Adam and then he gave some through Moses and some through the prophets and then through the gospels.

And as time goes on, we have more and more that we know about God. That's progressive revelation. Charles Hodge said the progressive character of divine revelation is recognized in relation to all the great doctrines of the

Bible. What at first is only obscurely intimated is gradually unfolded in subsequent parts of the sacred volume until the truth is revealed in its fullness.

That doesn't mean the Old Testament is uninspired. It's inspired. It doesn't mean it had error.

It's truthful, but there are more truths coming down the pike as God sovereignly gave that information, a movement from truth to more truth, not a movement from error to truth, a movement of lesser to greater, less truth, greater truth, provisional truth, permanent truth.

And so this preacher is saying, if I could just make it very relevant for today, apropos for today, show you the relevance.

It's not enough to say, I believe in God. It's not enough to say, I know I have a soul.

I know I'm going to stand before God one day. It's not enough to pray. It's not enough to fast. It's not enough to say,

I have to be a good person. We're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to believe in him.

And the thing is, when you read the Old Testament, who's the

Old Testament about? If you answer, it's mainly about Israel, you've answered wrongly.

Jesus, let's turn there to Luke 24, has told us what the Old Testament is about. Oh, it's about a nation, but more than a nation.

What is the Old Testament about? Jesus has told us. The Bible is about the salvation of sinners.

One mediator, same Old Testament, New Testament. One Jesus, Old Testament, New Testament, Jesus tells us.

So you've got the Old Testament that tells us a little bit, little bit, little bit. And it's adding more. But all those little bits are even about Jesus himself.

Beginning Luke 24, 27, I know you know the passage well. Beginning with Moses and all the prophets,

Jesus interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Friends, the center of the

Old Testament is Jesus. You say, well, it sounds like you're reading

Jesus into the Old Testament to me. As my friend said, we're not reading him into scripture.

We're refusing to read him out of it. This is what Jesus said. It's all about him. The center of the

Old Testament is Jesus. If you think the Old Testament is primarily a book about culture,

Jewish culture, ancient history, ancient cultures, then you miss that it's about Jesus and his sufferings and the glories to follow.

The Old Testament just doesn't point to Jesus. It reveals Jesus. Let me say that again. The Old Testament doesn't just point to Jesus.

It reveals Jesus. Lockyer said this. I love this.

You can email me. I'll send it to you. In Genesis, Jesus is the seed of the woman.

In Exodus, Jesus is the Passover lamb. In Leviticus, he is the atoning sacrifice.

In Numbers, Jesus is the smitten rock. In Deuteronomy, Jesus is the prophet. In Joshua, Jesus is the captain of the

Lord's hosts. In Judges, Jesus is the deliverer. In Ruth, Jesus is the kinsman.

In Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, Jesus is the promised king. In Nehemiah, Jesus is the restorer of the nation.

In Esther, Jesus is the advocate. In Job, Jesus is my redeemer. In Psalms, Jesus is my savior.

In Proverbs, Jesus is my wisdom. In Ecclesiastes, Jesus is my goal. In Song of Solomon, Jesus is my satisfier.

In the prophets, Jesus is the coming prince of peace. In the gospels, Jesus is God. In Christ, Jesus come to redeem.

In Acts, Jesus is alive in the church. In the epistles, Jesus is Christ at the

Father's right hand. And in Revelation, Jesus is the mighty conqueror.

So Jewish people, when you're reading the Old Testament, if you're just going to hunker down in and say, you know what, washings, cleansings, faith in general, you're missing the entire point because all of the

Bible speaks, here's who Jesus is. You want to know who the true prophet, priest, and king is?

You can look at the Old Testament. You want to know who the true Passover lamb is, 1 Corinthians 5? You can look at the Old Testament.

You want to know who the true Israel is? Matthew 2 says it's Jesus. Who's the true temple?

It's Jesus. Look down at verse 25 of Luke 24 since you're there.

Would you have not liked to be on this road, the road to Emmaus? I think it's almost six miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

And I wish it was exactly because I'd call this the 10K. Out of all the 10Ks, this is the 10K.

Who would like to be on this road? Jesus to two disciples on the way to Emmaus, Luke 24, 25.

O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer and enter into his glory?

And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, that is to say our Old Testament, he interpreted them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

I wonder what he talked about. Did he talk about the seed in Genesis 3? I don't know. Did he talk about Abraham?

I don't know. But he began with Moses and the prophets and went on to say he himself is the meaning of the

Old Testament. Verse 44 through 49,

Jesus says to a larger group, Luke 24, everything that is written about me in the law and Moses and the prophets and the

Psalms must be fulfilled. This is great, isn't it? Then he opened their mind to understand the scriptures and said to them,

Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer on the third day and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.

You're witnesses of these things and behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you, but stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high.

Sometimes what we need to do is we need to say Galatians 5 is hooked to Galatians 6 and read it without that chapter break and sometimes we need to say even as God has designed the canon, the end of Luke.

What happens in Luke's next book, Acts? This is a great hinge verse. This is a great hinge concept.

You want to know how the Old Testament was preached by Peter in the book of Acts? With this theological concept.

He could not stop talking about the Lord Jesus from the Old Testament in the book of Acts.

Turn back to Hebrews if you would. Hebrews chapter 1 and I want you to know that out of the only sermon that we have in all the

Bible written to a New Testament congregation, every time he's talking about Jesus, he uses the

Old Testament to back up what he has said. The human author intends

Jesus to appear in all these Old Testament verses, deliberately connecting

Jesus to the Old Testament, repetitively connecting Jesus to the Old Testament.

Do you see it in chapter 1 verse 5 of Hebrews? Remember this list, these seven

Old Testament verses? Which of the angels did he ever say, you are my son, today

I have begotten you? That Psalm 2 is about Jesus. What about 2

Samuel 7? Or again, I will be a father to him and he shall be a son to me. What's 2

Samuel about? Jesus. Verse 6 from Deuteronomy 32.

And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all the angels worship him. Who's the him?

Jesus. That's what this writer wants you to see. The text applies to Jesus.

Psalm 104 is found in verse 7 of Hebrews 1. Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire.

To whom does that refer? Answer, Jesus. Finally, we have this set up, so when you ask your children, what did you learn in Sunday school class?

And when they say, Jesus, they're right. Some of you are just giving me that look.

You know, you ask a kid, what did you learn in Sunday school? And they look at you, Jesus? But that's the point.

You're like, well, some of these verses from the Old Testament doesn't seem like they're very Christocentric. When I'm reading the Old Testament, kind of this way,

I know, that's why you shouldn't do it like that. You should be saying, Jesus has taught me how to interpret the Old Testament.

Hebrews has taught me how to interpret the Old Testament. Psalm 2, Psalm 110, Psalm 102. They're all about Jesus.

Psalm 45, found in verses 8 and 9. But of the sun, look at Hebrews 1. Your throne,

O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. It's about the

Lord Jesus. Psalm 102, found in verse 11 and 12. 10, 11, and 12.

You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. Did you know

Psalm 102 talks about Elohim does that, and Hebrews 1 says that's Jesus. Elohim is

Jesus. And then finally, he gives Psalm 110, quoted in Hebrews 1, 13 and 14.

Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool of your feet. The Old Testament is about Jesus.

And the writer wants you to mature. The writer wants you to believe. The writer wants you to take all these doctrines that you've been taught in Sunday school and then finally believe.

Now back to Hebrews 6, and we'll close here. Hebrews 6, verse 3. There's a throwaway verse, seemingly, but we know no

Bible verse is a throwaway verse. It's there for a reason. Why is this verse here? He said, be mature by going past elementary doctrines and foundations that you should build upon and think about Jesus from.

But then he says something weird in verse 3. And this we will do if God permits. Have you ever met people who just say all the time,

Lord willing, Lord willing, Lord willing. It's good to say that.

Why does he say it here though? And this we will do if God permits. Does anybody have this verse underlined in your

Bible? Just one of you? Did you underline them all? I have a particular daughter.

I don't know her name because it might cost me a dollar if I say it. But she used to just underline every verse in her

Bible. I'm like, yeah, that's great. Why is this here?

I mean, he says, mature, press forward, human responsibility. But everywhere you go in the

Bible, there's this responsibility. But God's sovereign over all this. You are not going to go further and press farther and mature in faith or mature in your faith unless God wants it to happen.

That's what the text says. And this we will do if God permits. You ought to say to yourself, you mean

God might not permit it? The answer is yes. God's sovereign.

Did God permit the Israelites to go into the land right away?

He did not permit. This is not a throwaway verse.

This is a verse that says, you know what? All of evangelicalism would say, of course

God permits it. The writer says, no, God might not permit it.

So be very, very careful. You need to make progress in your faith. That is your responsibility.

But God is sovereign over all this. It's not within your power. You are responsible but not able.

That shouldn't surprise us when it comes to salvation or sanctification. Maybe my all -time favorite recognition of this is found in Luke 5.

I'll read you the verse and we'll close. But please turn there. Luke chapter 5. The sovereignty of God in the life of a leper.

The writer of Hebrews wants us to realize that if we're going to mature in our faith or mature by believing,

God has to be the one who's doing it. So ask Him to help you. So trust in Him.

So depend on Him. The sovereignty of God and His ability go together. God can save, but He has to be willing to save.

And here Luke 5. I mean, could there be anything better than closing a sermon with the

Lord Jesus Christ Himself and how He deals with people who recognize God's sovereignty and their responsibility.

Luke 5 .12. While He was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw

Jesus, he fell on his face and begged Him. Now listen. This sounds like Hebrews 6 .3.

Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Maybe he heard the sermon on the mount.

Ask and you'll find. Seek and it'll be given to you. And now he goes to Jesus. Mark 1 says, beseeching

Him. I thought you're supposed to stay away and yell out unclean, unclean and stay back.

Here's this leprous man. Numbers 12 says, leprosy is like when your flesh is half eaten away.

This guy is socially, religiously, economically ostracized. And by the way, it affects your throat.

And so you kind of gurgle when you talk. And so I don't know how he said it. With a gurgle, I'm sure. Lord, help me.

If you can, if you will, you can make me clean. And he comes up to Jesus, wheezing, hoarse.

I don't know what he's doing, but he gets down on his hands and knees and he begins to beg.

Did I mention when you have leprosy, you smell horrible because your body is getting eaten away.

And he comes to the Lord Jesus and he says, Lord, Lord, sovereign.

I'm going to ask you something that hasn't been done for thousands of years. When's the last time a leper was healed?

Miriam was healed and Naaman the leper was healed. Nobody heals lepers unless you've been the

Messiah. And he submits to the will of Christ. If you're willing, you can make me clean. I know you can do it.

You're sovereign. You're powerful. You walk on water. You make bread. You cast out demons. You make the world.

You forgive sins. I know you can do it, but would you? Will you please do that?

And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. Who does that? I will.

I'm sovereign and I've decided to do it. And I have the power. Be clean. And immediately the leprosy left him.

I wonder who touched the leper last time. It wasn't his wife. It wasn't his children. It wasn't the people in the marketplace because he was ostracized.

And Jesus stretches out his hand. And in compassion, Mark says, moved with compassion.

Deep pity. God's compassion, the kind of compassion that only God has. With compassion that doesn't have it, but touches.

Calvin said, by his word alone, he might have healed the leper, but he applied at the same time the touch of his hand to express the feeling of compassion.

And Jesus's holiness isn't defiled by touching uncleanliness. And immediately his leprosy was cleaned.

And he charged him to tell no one, verse 14, but go and show yourselves to the preach and make an offering for your cleansing.

I will be clean. Friends, that's a good picture of Hebrews 6. You have a responsibility to believe and mature in your believing.

But you can only do it if God wants you to. And so you say, God, I'm responsible to do these things. And I know you can help me if you're willing.

And by the way, Christian, he's willing. And he's able. Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for our time in your word. I'm thankful that you have given us everything we need.

And we have not been left with just the Old Testament. But even if we had that alone, we would know that we're sinful and we need a

Savior. And that Savior is going to be a great king, a great prophet, and a great priest.

And we know his name because we have more of the Bible now. And when we cry out, O God, be merciful to me, a sinner, we realize that that God we cry out to is the

Lord Jesus Christ. And you're pleased to save.

I pray for Bethlehem Bible Church that you might help us to grow in our maturation as we understand these things. We know lots of doctrine, and now we need to get to know, through that doctrine, much about your

Son. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.